Visions Of Carnegie Still Dance In Players' Heads

People

December 6, 1989|By Robin Pollack Special To The Sentinel

Imagine this: You're a famous musician - maybe even a composer. You're on the Carnegie Hall stage, beaming under the spotlight. The crowd is on its feet in homage to you; applause thunders in your ears.

It's a daydream of most budding musicians. But for four Lake County students, the fantasy became reality recently when they performed in Carnegie Hall, that bastion of acoustic perfection, as part of the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra.

The lights have long since faded, the applause has stopped. But, just ask Adrienne DeNoyelles, Alissa Rata, David Sellers and Jennifer Reed what it was like to perform in the great Carnegie Hall in New York City, and watch the gleam pop right back into their eyes.

''It was the neatest thing: You walked out onto that stage - that stage where you have always dreamed about playing,'' said 17-year-old Jennifer, a Mount Dora high student who plays the viola.

''Then, you think about those musicians who you have idolized all your life, and you realize they sat right there, right there on the same stage,'' Jennifersaid.

''I just kept thinking about how Tchaikovsky had once stood in the same spot where I was,'' said Adrienne, a 15-year-old cello player at Tavares Middle School.

The mere thought of standing on the 89-year-old stage where the great Russian composer and conductor once performed ''totally awed me,'' said David, a 14-year-old cello player who attends Mount Dora High School.

Performing at Carnegie Hall ''was sort of like an Olympics for musicians for us,'' David said.

One thing the young musicians agree on: The acoustics at Carnegie Hall sure beat the sound in a school auditorium or music room.

''It was such an honor to play there, and the sound - there was no comparison to school - it sounded totally different, totally clear,'' Alissa said. The 12-year-old Alissa, who attends Eustis Middle School, plays the viola.

For Adrienne, performing at Carnegie Hall was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the culmination of years of hard work and practice.

''I worked toward this for a long time,'' she said. ''It was great - not everyone gets that chance, much less when they're our age.''

Not that Adrienne and the others weren't nervous about performing in Carnegie Hall. After all, sitting in the audience were accomplished musicians and conductors, scrutinizing the 95 students who performed in the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra.

''During rehearsal, it kind of hit me that we were in Carnegie Hall, and suddenly it became scary,'' Adrienne said.

''But, once we began the actual concert, we had to concentrate and there was no time to be scared,'' she said. ''It was fun.

''When it was over, I wished it had lasted longer.''

All four youths plan on keeping music an important facet of their lives. Alissa wants to teach music, while David is torn between being a musician and an author.

Adrienne also is torn. ''I think about being a journalist, but I wouldn't give this up, ever,'' she said, patting her cello case. ''I still want to play, but it probably won't be my lifetime career. I don't know if I've got enough discipline to practice six hours a day.''

Jennifer, however, says she hasthat discipline. Graduating this spring, Jennifer is applying for admission to prestigious music colleges, such as Julliard in New York City.

''Music is everything to me,'' she said. ''It brings me so much pleasure. The viola has so many pretty concertos, and I want to be able to play them and let people hear how wonderful the music can sound.''